Stats 9Y39 Main


Opening Bids


 by Richard Pavlicek

The following tables show an accounting of opening bids in vugraph archives of the Vanderbilt, Spingold, U.S. Bridge Championship and World Team Championship from 1996-2014. Source data consists of 80,138 results (40,069 deals) from 72 events, however, passouts and unknown auctions* are excluded to leave 77,214 results with opening bids.

*Sadly, vugraph records would have you believe that many more auctions are known. If an auction is unknown at the comparison table, the recording software evidently does not allow a contract to be entered alone. Instead, the operator must enter a bogus auction (e.g., 4 S P P P) to obtain a contract for IMP scoring. I have removed over 2000 bogus auctions from these archives, but it’s tough to catch them all. Hopefully, this flaw will be corrected before bridge history goes the way of the dinosaurs.

[Update] The dinosaurs are closing in, as the vugraph-production morons continue to supply hundreds of bogus auctions. Sigh. Does anyone know the difference between a contract and an auction?

Opening bid statistics are potentially biased because some boards are duplicated in two or more matches — typically the semifinals and quarterfinals. Hence, results of those boards carry more weight than boards played in only one match.

Averages

The first table shows the number of times each opening bid occurred, its overall percentage, and its averages (mode median mean) for HCP, freakness, and lengths in each suit. Only opening bids of 1 C through 5 D are considered (eliminating one instance of a 6 D opening) and the meaning of a bid is irrelevant; e.g., the 1 C openings could be natural, artificial or anything in-between.

BidTimesPercentHCPFreaknessSpadesHeartsDiamondsClubs
1 C17,26622.3612 14 14.731 2 2.694 3 3.093 3 3.003 3 2.834 4 4.09
1 D15,22019.7112 13 13.041 3 3.064 3 2.793 3 2.735 5 4.573 3 2.91
1 H10,74113.9112 13 13.174 4 4.242 2 2.445 5 5.313 3 2.662 3 2.59
1 S10,62413.7612 13 13.094 4 4.405 5 5.322 3 2.582 2 2.562 2 2.55
1 NT11,83015.3215 15 14.681 1 1.433 3 3.103 3 3.173 3 3.363 3 3.37
2 C21082.7312 14 15.934 4 4.593 3 2.952 3 2.832 3 2.686 5 4.54
2 D20082.608 9 9.814 4 4.513 3 3.333 3 3.572 3 3.432 3 2.67
2 H17792.308 8 8.554 5 5.102 2 2.286 6 5.652 2 2.562 2 2.51
2 S15892.068 8 8.194 5 5.226 6 5.702 2 2.052 3 2.672 2 2.58
2 NT15101.9620 20 19.481 1 1.673 3 3.163 3 3.143 3 3.323 3 3.38
3 C5330.699 8 7.567 6 6.302 2 2.092 2 2.112 2 2.426 6 6.39
3 D4880.638 8 7.487 7 6.522 2 1.832 2 2.247 7 6.462 2 2.47
3 H4250.558 8 7.357 7 6.962 2 2.007 7 6.611 2 2.102 2 2.29
3 S3970.517 7 7.187 7 6.937 7 6.692 2 1.911 2 2.102 2 2.31
3 NT890.1210 12 12.607 7 6.602 2 2.602 2 2.557 3 4.172 3 3.69
4 C550.079 9 9.279 9 9.152 1 1.422 4 4.402 2 2.118 7 5.07
4 D380.059 9 10.037 9 8.377 2 3.212 2 2.328 7 5.212 2 2.26
4 H2290.3010 10 9.529 9 8.361 1 1.667 7 7.222 2 2.071 2 2.05
4 S2290.3010 10 9.909 8 8.327 7 7.231 2 1.712 2 2.161 2 1.90
4 NT50.0117 15 14.609 9 9.802 2 1.601 1 2.008 7 5.009 2 4.40
5 C250.0310 9 9.0011 10 10.122 2 1.720 1 1.241 2 1.928 8 8.12
5 D260.0312 10 10.199 10 10.122 2 1.581 2 1.858 8 8.152 2 1.42

In the case of a tie for the mode, or a median that falls between two values, the higher value is shown.

Stats 9Y39 MainTop Opening Bids

Hand Patterns

The next table shows the specific hand patterns that occurred at least 1 percent of the time (and at least twice) for each opening bid. For example, 4423(648) means that opener held four spades, four hearts, two diamonds and three clubs 648 times.

BidHand Pattern (Occurrences)
1 C4333(793) 3334(788) 3433(720) 4423(648) 4324(597) 4234(552) 3424(519) 2434(496)
3235(458) 4225(432) 3325(408) 4414(408) 2335(388) 2425(356) 2344(339) 3343(334)
3244(334) 4432(315) 4135(314) 3415(311) 4315(291) 2245(280) 3145(260) 1435(245)
3226(228) 4243(218) 2443(201) 1345(198) 4342(196) 2236(186) 3442(185)
1 D3343(673) 4342(612) 3442(494) 4243(489) 4252(480) 4432(454) 3253(419) 3352(409)
4153(400) 2443(396) 2254(388) 4441(370) 2452(360) 4351(357) 2344(355) 3244(354)
4144(346) 2353(344) 3451(327) 1453(304) 1444(288) 3154(264) 1354(264) 3262(234)
3163(222) 4333(216) 2362(214) 2263(206) 2155(201) 3334(198) 1363(191) 3433(190)
4423(166) 1462(160)
1 H3532(633) 2533(627) 3523(579) 2542(545) 4522(540) 2524(526) 4513(386) 3514(385)
1534(360) 3541(360) 4531(351) 2623(337) 2632(321) 1543(317) 3622(274) 2551(212)
3631(205) 2515(189) 1552(188) 1633(180) 3613(173) 4612(153) 1624(142) 1525(139)
1642(136) 2614(126) 2641(126)
1 S5323(598) 5332(581) 5233(580) 5224(557) 5422(538) 5242(481) 5314(341) 5341(329)
5413(325) 5143(321) 5431(316) 6232(311) 6223(311) 5134(269) 6322(230) 5512(210)
5251(207) 5521(203) 6331(203) 5215(187) 6142(176) 6313(171) 5152(168) 6133(156)
6412(149) 6421(138) 6241(137) 6214(122) 5044(118) 6124(117) 5125(114)
1 NT3334(649) 3433(587) 3343(531) 4333(495) 2443(447) 3424(428) 4234(417) 4432(400)
4243(399) 4423(397) 4342(388) 3244(382) 3442(382) 4324(371) 2434(359) 3253(348)
2344(336) 3235(333) 2335(331) 3352(325) 3325(310) 2353(285) 2533(218) 3532(215)
5323(204) 2452(197) 3523(196) 2425(176) 5332(171) 2245(168) 5233(143) 2254(119)

BidHand Pattern (Occurrences)
2 C3226(102) 2236(79) 2326(70) 1246(55) 3136(52) 3316(50) 2416(41) 1426(39)
1336(39) 4216(35) 4135(35) 2146(33) 1435(32) 4126(32) 3433(30) 2443(30)
2227(27) 4225(26) 2425(26) 4315(24) 3334(23) 4333(23) 4036(23) 2353(22) 3415(22)
2 D4522(62) 3262(62) 2623(57) 2632(56) 4513(52) 6232(50) 1363(49) 3622(47)
6322(47) 4414(44) 4531(43) 2362(43) 2263(42) 3163(39) 6331(36) 3415(33)
6133(31) 6223(29) 1633(29) 2164(28) 4315(28) 3361(27) 6313(26) 2641(25)
1642(24) 3613(22) 6124(22) 1264(22) 3631(21) 1462(21) 2614(21)
2 H2632(188) 2623(153) 3622(110) 1633(98) 2641(80) 1624(78) 3613(77) 3631(73)
1642(48) 2614(46) 4621(41) 1552(37) 2524(35) 4612(33) 4522(32) 2551(31)
1525(25) 1534(24) 3514(24) 1543(23) 2542(20) 2533(18) 4513(18)
2 S6232(146) 6223(146) 6322(131) 6133(86) 6313(75) 6331(66) 6142(57) 6124(57)
5251(51) 5242(40) 6241(38) 6412(36) 6034(34) 6214(33) 5143(33) 5224(32)
5215(29) 5152(25) 5341(23) 6421(23) 5134(20) 6151(18) 5233(18) 7222(17) 5125(17)
2 NT3433(74) 3343(74) 4342(64) 4333(64) 3244(60) 4432(58) 3334(56) 2434(53) 4423(52)
3424(50) 4324(49) 4234(43) 4243(43) 2344(42) 2443(42) 3325(42) 3532(33) 2353(33)
3442(32) 3352(32) 3235(32) 5332(30) 2533(30) 3253(30) 5233(30) 3523(29) 4225(27)
2335(25) 5323(21) 2425(20) 1255(17) 2236(17) 4252(16)

Stats 9Y39 MainTop Opening Bids

BidHand Pattern (Occurrences)
3 C2326(32) 2146(32) 2317(31) 2227(29) 3226(28) 1237(27) 3136(25) 3217(25)
2236(22) 3316(19) 2137(19) 1246(18) 3127(17) 1336(16) 1426(15) 4216(14)
1327(14) 1147(14) 2416(14) 1156(10) 3046(9) 1228(7) 0346(7) 2407(6) 3307(6)
3 D1372(36) 2173(29) 2164(29) 2272(28) 2263(26) 3172(25) 1363(25) 1264(23)
2371(20) 1273(20) 1462(17) 3271(16) 2362(15) 3361(14) 3262(13) 1471(13)
1174(12) 3163(11) 4162(11) 2461(8) 1282(7) 0265(6) 3073(6) 0373(6)
0274(6) 0463(5)
3 H3712(43) 2731(35) 2713(29) 2722(25) 1723(23) 1624(22) 1714(20) 3721(17)
1732(14) 2632(11) 1741(11) 2614(11) 2623(10) 2641(10) 1651(9) 1615(9) 4711(8)
1642(8) 3730(7) 0724(7) 4612(7) 2821(6) 3622(6) 1633(6) 3631(6) 2704(5)
3 S7222(44) 7213(44) 7312(30) 7132(26) 7123(25) 7231(25) 7321(24) 6214(14)
7411(12) 6223(12) 7033(12) 6034(10) 7141(10) 6115(9) 7114(8) 6142(8) 6250(8)
6133(6) 7402(5) 6232(4) 6322(4) 8131(4) 6052(4) 6124(4) 7024(4) 7204(4)
3 NT2272(7) 1372(5) 1237(3) 2218(3) 3271(3) 3028(2) 3217(2) 2434(2) 7222(2)
4324(2) 3253(2) 4720(2) 2542(2) 2263(2) 7204(2)

BidHand Pattern (Occurrences)
4 C0247(4) 4207(3) 2812(3) 0238(3) 2821(3) 2038(3) 1228(2) 1723(2)
1732(2) 3118(2) 2407(2) 2803(2)
4 D0382(6) 7312(3) 2173(3) 7222(2) 3181(2) 1282(2) 7123(2) 1084(2) 7213(2)
4 H2821(24) 1723(17) 1714(14) 2713(12) 1732(10) 0742(10) 1822(10) 1741(9)
0832(8) 2731(8) 1831(8) 3811(7) 1615(6) 0724(6) 4720(6) 2704(5) 2803(5)
3721(5) 4711(5) 2740(4) 3712(4) 4702(4) 2830(3) 0715(3) 1651(3) 3730(3) 2650(3)
4 S7123(19) 7141(15) 7231(13) 8320(12) 7213(11) 8221(10) 7132(10) 7042(9)
8131(9) 7114(9) 7321(8) 8311(7) 7411(7) 9121(7) 8212(7) 6250(6) 7222(6)
7312(6) 7024(6) 8122(5) 6115(5) 7330(5) 7105(4) 7204(4) 7033(3) 7402(3) 7420(3)
4 NTToo rare to be meaningful
5 C2218(5) 2038(3) 2029(2) 1138(2) 2119(2) 1129(2)
5 D3190(4) 0382(4) 2281(3) 2182(3) 0292(2) 3082(2)

Stats 9Y39 MainTop Opening Bids

© 2014 Richard Pavlicek